


Growing Pains

by pippinmctaggart



Series: Merry & Pippin fics [3]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Cousins, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Quest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-07-30
Updated: 2004-07-30
Packaged: 2018-03-31 06:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3968410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pippinmctaggart/pseuds/pippinmctaggart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merry lectures young Pippin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing Pains

**Author's Note:**

> A hobbit fic, once again for [](http://1420.livejournal.com/profile)[**1420**](http://1420.livejournal.com/). This takes place about 7 years before the War of the Ring, and just a short time after [_Shade_](http://www.livejournal.com/users/pippinmctaggart/3781.html#cutid1). Because it's _for_ my beta, it has not been beta'd. Please forgive my presumption.

Pippin opened the large round door. "Merry!" he exclaimed in surprise, pleased. "I didn't know you were coming to visit me today!"

Merry reached in, grabbed hold of Pippin's collar, and dragged him out, letting the door swing shut behind him. "I'll wager you were _hoping_ I wasn't coming today," he muttered.

"What-whatever's the matter, Merry?" the young hobbit asked uncertainly, skipping awkwardly beside his cousin. "Is something wrong?"

"Of all the foolish, thoughtless...childish things to do, Peregrin Took!" Merry scolded.

"Ow, Merry, you're hurting me!" he protested.

Merry loosened his hold on Pippin's collar. He gave him a little shove behind the trees, glancing around to make sure no one was near enough to hear. He had every intention of tearing a strip off his impetuous younger cousin, but he didn't want Pippin getting in trouble from the adults, or he'd be miserable for weeks.

Pippin stumbled, caught himself on a small sapling. "Merry, what did I do?"

"You know very well, Master Took," he said severely. "And if you truly need a reminder, I think the words 'well', 'dungarees', and 'Odo Proudfoot' ought to be enough to bring it all back, don't you?"

Pippin blanched. "But--but--"

"No buts, Pippin," Merry cut him off. "Did our conversation about me treating you more like a grown-up young hobbit and the consequences of your actions go in one ear and out the other? Was I just wasting my breath? Were your promises to think before you acted foolishly just empty air? Answer me, Pippin!"

"No!" Pippin yelped, stung. "I did think, Merry, I did!"

"You thought about putting all Odo's dungarees into the bucket and lowering it down into the well, and decided it was a good idea, did you?"

"No! I mean--it wasn't like that!"

"Then just what was it like, Pippin? Honestly! I'm disappointed in you, Pip. I don't know where you get these hare-brained ideas from--"

"Stop shouting at me!" Pippin cried, his eyes suddenly suspiciously bright.

One look at those green eyes glittering up at him took the wind right out of Merry's sails. "Ah, Pip," he sighed, and lowered himself down to sit on the cool grass, leaning up against the poplar trunk behind him. "Sit with me. Tell me what happened."

Pippin sat a few feet away, hugging his knees, embarrassed to have been caught getting weepy, just like the baby he kept telling Merry he wasn't. "It was Cela's idea," he muttered.

"Be honest with me, Pippin. Was it really Celandine's idea, or are you afraid I'll be cross again if you admit it was yours?" Merry cocked an eyebrow.

"It was hers!" he said angrily. "She said it would be really funny if we put Odo's trousers down the well, because he'd roar when he couldn't find them, and then he'd get thirsty and go to the well and pull the bucket up and there would be all his dungarees and she thought it would be really funny!"

Merry paused a moment until he could speak without a trace of a smile. Odo _would_ have roared, and probably quite impressively. "And did you think it would be funny?"

"Well--yes. But I thought about it, Merry, like you wanted me to, I swear I did! And I told Cela that we shouldn't do it, and she told me to quit being so bossy, and then she called me--" Pippin stopped. He hadn't meant to tell that part of it.

Merry thought he understood. "She called you what?"

"Nothing."

"What did she call you, Pip?"

"She called me a yellow-belly," he muttered, hurt and ashamed.

Merry's jaw clenched, and he resolved to have a little chat with his distant cousin about the unkindness of name-calling. "And what did you say to that?" he asked gently.

"I told her I was no yellow-belly. And she said 'prove it', and I said fine, but I was going to do it by myself, because that way if we got caught only one of us would get in trouble, but I didn't think I'd get caught, I tried to be as careful as I could, Merry!" He peered up at his older cousin through the curls on his forehead. "How did you find out, anyway?"

"Frodo saw you. You're lucky it was only Frodo, because he told me instead of going straight to your parents."

Pippin sighed. "I tried to be careful."

"I'm sure you did." Merry finally allowed a small smile to cross his lips. "I'm proud of you, Pip."

The young hobbit looked up hopefully. "You are?"

"Not that you put Odo's trousers down the well," Merry said wryly. "But I believe you did try to stop Celandine, which means you did think about our little conversation. And you know why else I'm proud of you?"

Pippin shook his head.

"Even though she called you a hurtful name--and I suppose I can't really blame you for wanting to prove her wrong--even though she got you into it, in a way, you made sure if someone was going to be caught, it would only be you. That was a very...grown-up thing to do, Pippin."

"Are you still disappointed in me, Merry?" Pippin asked, and he flushed when his voice quavered.

"No, Pip, I'm not disappointed in you," he answered firmly. "Will you do something nice for Odo to make up for it?"

Pippin looked horrified, and Merry laughed.

"No, you don't have to admit you put his trousers down the well. Even I wouldn't do that to you! But I think you should still do something to make reparation. Carry some wood for him without being asked, perhaps."

Pippin thought about it. "Yes, I could do that. I suppose it _was_ rather inconvenient to have a bucket-load of wet trousers."

"I should imagine it probably was. Now, young Peregrin Took--"

He looked up warily. "What?"

"Since I've come all the way over here, expressly to see you--" Merry stood up, held out his hand, and helped Pippin to his feet. "I think we should go have a bite to eat together, don't you?"

Pippin brightened considerably. "We could go pick some apples from Farmer Maggot's orchard--"

"No!" Merry cried, hands on his hips. "We just got through talking about being adults, we are not about to go out and steal--" he stopped abruptly when he saw the mischievous smile on his young cousin's face. "Oh, you little rascal!"

He gladly chased a happily shrieking Pippin all the way down the lane.


End file.
